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Monday, March 23, 2015

A Fancy Bed for Cheap!

Does anyone follow Hannah and Kaylee on YouTube? This title reminds me of them and their “fo cheap!” videos. Ha! Love them. ;)
Hope your weekend was wonderful! I spent a ton of time in front of the sewing machine working on pillows for both the master bedroom and the window seat in the kitchen.
I was thinking as I was working on everything -- teaching myself to sew is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I mean, I learned how to do it in junior high school, but then didn’t sew again till I was in my early 30’s. Making your own pillows (and drapes!) can save SO MUCH money and it’s such an easy thing to do to change up your space.
So the topic today is the master bedroom. You know those photos of the gorgeous beds in Pottery Barn – the pillows are all perfect and the bed is so fluffy and it just looks so cozy? Well, I’ve never been good at that. I just throw the our pillows on the bed, the shams the come with the bedding and then some throw pillows. It looks fine – there’s nothing wrong with that! I’ve just always wanted a more luxurious look.
When I made our (less than) $100 tufted headboard I got new bedding from HomeGoods and the redo of our bedroom started:

Look how teensy Colby was!:
Oh my goodness! Sweetness. Look at the innocence in his eyes. It’s gone now. ;)
I’ve always struggled between wanting a calm and soothing bedroom and one that has some contrast and feels more cozy. So next I decided to do both and created this paneled wall in dark gray behind the bed:
And since then I’ve been wanting to complete the look of the bedding too.
I’ve searched high and low for the right accent fabric for the bed. At first I thought I wanted to add something in navy to pull in our lamps. I actually picked out a set of navy curtain panels but it looked all wrong. I ended up taking one of the shams from our bedding with me one day and then I finally found something I knew would work. It helped immensely to have it with me as I looked!
Yet again, I went with curtain panels:
I look at any kind of fabric when I’m considering pillows or drapes or really anything – curtains for sure, shower curtains too. You know how much I love table linens as pillows! So don’t limit yourself to the fabric store my friends.
On my last trip to IKEA I found large feather euro inserts…for TEN DOLLARS. People – that is seriously worth the drive if you are ever looking to make these. Those are usually at least twice that amount elsewhere. Anyway, the two curtain panels were plenty to make three euro pillows – I cut three squares from each panel, making sure that the repeat of the fabric was at least similar on each one. A professional would make sure they all match exactly but I’m not that picky. :)
I knew I wanted some smaller accent pillows too, but couldn’t find the right fabric. So…I decided to use the shams that came with our bedding. Our duvet and these shams are more of a sheet material – really thin and soft, so the sham never looked right. It was always too floppy. So I decided reuse them to make pillow covers:
They weren’t large enough to do two 20 inch square pillows, so as luck would have it I already had two smaller inserts that were 16 inches – I just did two 16 inch pillows out of one sham and then one 20 inch for the middle. It worked out pretty darn great!:
I pulled out the king shams from another sheet set and added those as well. Those are more of a purpley gray and blue gray combo, and I got them years back to go with the duvet. The colors match those in the duvet perfectly -- it’s hard to see the design on them in pics though.
But amazingly, all of the different grays really came together beautifully!:
It’s all feels so fancy! It cost me $50 to go from just the shams to this. The pillow inserts were $10 each and the curtain panels were $30 (for two). I still have some of that fabric leftover to do accent pillows elsewhere in the room.
Since I had the inserts for the smaller pillows (and reused my shams), those didn’t cost my anything. I’ve had the long pillow in the front since I got the new bedding but it looks so much better now: Sorry for the light – this room is SO hard to photograph!
After all that time it was way easier to finish this up than I thought. It really helped that I finally decided to just take one of the pillow cases with me so I could see what really worked with it when I was out and about.
I am so ready to get moving on finishing up this makeover – it’s been going on for years now! I get sidetracked easily, if you haven't noticed:
Next up, I WILL be painting the three other walls, finally. I almost started this weekend but I want to get going when I know I can finish at least one wall. (They are all big, tall walls.)
And I’ll also be recovering the bench at the end of the bed – I found the PERFECT fabric last week but it’s so expensive. I need to do some measuring to see how much I would need. It would look so good! I’ve also been on the lookout for a set of small dressers to use as night stands, but can’t find any that are the right size:
I really want something older from a thrift store or Craigslist, but I’ll just have to be patient and keep looking.
But I’m THRILLED with my curtain panel pillows! ;) As I said, think outside of of the box when it comes to fabric – I usually find the perfect fabric somewhere other than the fabric store.
Our bed feels so luxurious and cozy. Now feel like I should make the bed every dayevery other day once a and a while! Have you ever used curtains or something unusual for pillows?

35 comments:

Hi Sarah! The bed looks great with the new pillows! Sewing is such a great talent to learn. Just curious if you've ever thought of changing out the sun mirror over your headboard for something else or even spray painting the gold with a silver? Ever time you show it, I think how a painting it silver would make it look like a shooting star and fit better with the cooler grey and blues of your room. It's your room and I'm not trying to tell you how to do it. It was just a thought I decided to throw out to you. Thank you for the continued inspiration!

Loving the the bedding and diy pillows. Are they made envelope style? I'm not much of a seamstress but want to change out the pillow covers on my sofa. Have you considered IKEA rast dressers for your bedside. I have a pair waiting to be assembled for my bedroom and can't settle on a design style. Good luck!Carol

They are not -- just basic pillows. I'm still working up the courage to try a zipper. ;) And YES, funny you mention that! After looking on Craigslist again last night I decided I may just go with those instead. They are a great size and so easy to transform.

Your bed looks beautiful! I am thinking about changing up some things in our room and our bed is certainly high on the list! We just have a quilt/coverlet and the sham pillows that came with it. So boring and un-fluffy! You've just inspired me to make a more luxurious space for us! Still drooling over that dark gray wall you did!!! Not sure if something similar would look good with our huge four poster bed. What do you think? I have had the worst time decorating around that thing!

So tell me exactly where all the pillows wind up when you're ready to go to bed??? on the floor??

I always start off with similar pillows on my bed, but in time I then tire of constantly taking them off and putting them back on. I have a small bedroom so no bench at the foot to hold them and the chair in the bedroom is always occupied by the kitty kats.... sigh

The whole bed looks so nice! I'm really wanting to update our master bedroom. But I can't go too big time. We decorated it officially about 3 years ago and our drapes were custom made? Yeah, so I can't replace those anytime soon. BUT, I think I want a new headboard and you're inspiring me to make my own decorative pillows. I *know* I could do that part! Great tip on looking for other fabrics besides just the fabric store. I need to keep an open mind!

Yes! At the moment I am hand-sewing (hey, it's kind of relaxing!) a very nubby bath mat into a pillow. Let's not talk about how I'm going to wash this....but after seeing textured pillows in HGTV Magazine and Country Living, one must think outside of the box on a budget. In the dollar stores I found $6 shaggy bath mats which I folded in half, hand-sewed and stuffed. You can't beat the price---or the cheap!

I know exactly what you mean about wanting your bed to look cozy! I feel like I have 17 pillows on my bed but it still looks so dumpy compared to the magazines. Your bed looks so heavenly! You have beautiful taste, I love it :)

Love the grays - watching your IG and blog I've been inspired to make the change from taupe neutrals to full-out gray in the next room I re-do! This room is another gem! I have a lot of the same elements (high ceilings, tall tufted headboard, similar wood floors, nice double windows to the right) but yours is so spacious! I got into the habit of storing stuff under the bed so I always used a bed skirt. However, changing linen sets 3-4 times a year I couldn't deal with the ones you buy that need to go all the way under a heavy, clumsy king mattress. So I started using tablecloths to make a faux skirt. I installed velcro on the box spring and I make a 15" high "wrap" from the tablecloth and velcro that too. It works great, there's a lot more variety to choose from than what stores offer in stock bedskirts and I get a rich, box-pleated & tailored look for tons less money. And bonus: the hem is already done!

Hi Sarah, Just wondering if you have thought of adding a pop of colour...like say hot pink...hot pink will go with both grey and navy...its just that it looks a bit samey of course its your bedroom and who am I to tell you what to do...dont get me wrong the dark grey background the lovely buttoned bedhead and all those cushions do make it look luxurious but its just needs something to bring the dark grey, the light grey, silver and navy blue out! Oh and I agree with Janet the gold mirror doesn't blend with anything else, again its your bedroom and you can see the whole room...no offence intended, xx

I will probably add some more color but the room isn't done just yet. It won't be pink though because my husband wouldn't love that. Ha! ;) The mirror works great -- there are other gold accents throughout the room that I love with that dark gray!

Love the pillows and they sure do make it look for luxurious and comfy! My eye was drawn to the mirror as was someone else's, but for a different reason. I thought it looked small compared to the size of the bed and wall treatment. I am guessing though that the overall look of the room changes that!

Beautiful room! Its looking great, I love wood paneling and yours looks so bold I love it! All those grays look perfect together and I can't wait to see the bench! I never thought about curtains for pillow fabric, that's a genius idea.

I noticed your flat sheet is fully tucked under your mattress. Can I ask where you found those sheets? EVERY single sheet set I buy, the flat sheet is not wide enough to actually tuck under the mattress. It frustrates me to no end. I have a King size bed and for the life of me can't find a flat sheet that I can tuck under the bed to make it look neat and pretty. The sheet always comes to just the bottom edge of the side of the mattress. Can you help me with that? Where do you find larger sized flat sheets for a King size mattress? Our mattress is a pillow top and is 24 inches deep.

Not sure if my comment got lost or what. But my question was where are your "sleeping pillows"? My sleeping pillows are wrinkled and not the same size, because my husband and I are picky :) so I struggle with where to put them on the bed.

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Just the right mix of masculine and feminine. Have you thought about the koppang dresser at ikea? It is a little on the big side but holds so much, we barely need a dresser at all.

Hi Sarah! As others have said, your bed and that whole wall just look fabulous! I want to chime in about the sunburst mirror, too, but I think it looks good! I was actually coming on here to comment about how, in that last picture, which I LOVE, the bench at the foot of the bed ties in so well with the mirror, because of the gold tone to the upholstery. Maybe a golden yellow color can be the accent color that others are saying you need to add. I know yellow and gray are a very popular color combination now, though that may be good or bad depending on whether you care about trends, either following them or avoiding them! Anyway, look at that last picture again and see what you think; you may want to reconsider re-covering the bench. It would be cheaper, lol. Also, surprisingly, I don't think the mirror is small, though it should be. But somehow, to me, it just works. Maybe because of the wainscoting panels. I'm curious to know your thoughts. Take care!

Just to add... not only do I think the golden yellow color ties in to the mirror, but I think it provides the contrast you need against all the gray tones. To me it works well! Anyway, bravo on a job well done!

Sarah, everything looks lovely! In theory, I'm not a fan of "mixed metals", but, in practice, it can look really beautiful when done right (as in your bedroom)! Another source for cheap fabric is second-hand stores (Salvation Army, etc.). Either by the piece, or as in a set of curtains, sheets, whatever. My rule when buying from such places is: it has to be washable! If furniture, I need to be able to wipe it down with hot, soapy, water and then spray the interior with a disinfectant and let air dry. If clothing/fabric, it must be hot-water washable and dryable in the dryer (also, no weird smells). I recently found four sets of curtains that were exactly what I had been looking for (two of sheer panels, two of duck cotton) for a total of $10! cheers, B.